August 4, 2012 - Toothache Day
by mmooch
Summary: **Part of the 2012 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts August Fic-A-Day** series, also known as the 'Wacky Holiday Series'. Sometimes Buffy has the best luck!


**August 4, 2012 - ****Toothache Day**

Summary: **Part of the 2012 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts August Fic-A-Day** series, also known as the 'Wacky Holiday Series'. Sometimes Buffy has the best luck!

Challenge: for the livejournal 2012 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: none this time.

Timeline: post-_'Chosen'_ for BtVS; vague for MacGyver, but change the dates so they line up.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. MacGyver characters belong to Lee David Zlotoff, Henry Winkler-John Rich Productions, Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

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**Middle of the jungle somewhere**

Buffy was not having a good day.

Heck, she wasn't having a good week.

It was February 9th and her baby sister was supposed to be getting married today. Actually, Buffy hoped Dawn was still getting married even though she wasn't there to witness it. After all, this was the third time they postponed the wedding due to Slayer-related stuff. The last time Buffy said she wanted Dawn married even if the apocalypse started.

She really should have known better than to taunt Murphy like that.

Which is why she was in some godforsaken jungle with a massive toothache caused by the big bad hitting her in the mouth. The good news was that she stopped him from ending the world. The bad news was that she was stranded in a magical dead zone with no way but her feet to get back to civilization.

Thank goodness they did that survival training thing a few years back. Dawn's boyfriend/now hopefully husband recommended that they learn the same things Special Forces people learned about living off the land and navigating the wilds…all the things that city girls dreaded.

But now Buffy was ever so grateful for the classes…and the emergency kits they were forced to take when they went into remote places like this one. She pulled out the bag with medicine, hoping to find the pain reliever so she could think straight again. Instead of a pill bottle, however, she found a note from her darling sister promising to get her some the next day. Apparently little Dawnie either forgot or never got the chance to follow through on her promise.

Before she could make empty threats to the jungle, a man came stumbling into the clearing she was setting up camp in. He was good-looking, in a cute sorta way. Despite being dirty and starved looking, he had sandy blond hair, darkish looking eyes – she guessed brown, and he was in pretty good shape. Question was: what was he doing in the jungle without any equipment?

As soon as he saw her, he appeared torn between being glad to see her and wary that she was in the jungle by herself. She wasn't sure if the fact she obviously wasn't native to this area worked for or against her.

Then she saw blood on his shirt sleeve and decided to take action. If he was evil, she'd worry about it later. "Umm, hi there," she greeted slowly. "I'm not sure if you understand English, but I'd like to help bandage your arm so it doesn't get infected or anything."

MacGyver was surprised to find an American – judging by her accent – in the middle of a Madagascar jungle. He had managed to escape his captors by planting clues he went the opposite direction. So he hoped that it was safe to stop and rest by now. His makeshift bandage from earlier was starting to slip off.

Was she with them? Maybe her offer to help him was just to lure him into a false sense of companionship. Another twinge in his arm made him almost not care. Oh well, he escaped once this trip; if needed, he could probably do it again.

"Thanks," he replied with genuine gratitude. "Name's Mac."

She smiled and introduced herself, "Mine's Buffy. Take a seat on that log."

After he unbuttoned his shirt, she helped him take it off, leaving the sleeve-less undershirt in place. He focused on the pain to keep from smiling at the somewhat lustful look she gave his upper body. She was very pretty when she blushed. He really hoped she wasn't on the wrong side.

Mac was shocked at how gentle and efficient her ministrations were. If it weren't for the screaming pain he felt, which was unavoidable from her cleaning and bandaging the arm, it would have been almost pleasant.

Apparently he grunted in pain once too often for her and she stopped working on his arm.

"Gonna try something to stop the pain," she explained. "I learned some acupressure from a friend of mine. I think the pressure point I want for this is…right…about…here!" she drew her words out as her hands ran across his chest and shoulder, pressing down firmly when she got to the last one.

Almost instantly the pain was muted; it wasn't entirely gone yet, but enough that he didn't feel like crying out anymore. She quickly finished her first aid and started to clean up the mess.

"Thanks again," Mac grunted.

"No prob," she replied, sounding as if she was in a bit of pain herself.

He took a closer look at her face and saw a dark bruise along her jawline. Somebody hit her? It looked like a punch, not like her running into anything.

"I take it you don't have any aspirin in your first aid kit?" Mac checked.

She shook her head, "Nope; somebody borrowed it and didn't restock."

Standing up, he said, "Alright. Then we need to find a garlic plant and/or a clove tree. I think I saw a tree about a hundred yards back."

Buffy stared at him in confusion. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Both garlic and cloves have properties which help with toothache pain. Assuming that's the problem with your mouth, getting either of those should help. Or if we can find some onions. Garlic has a compound called allicin; it'll keep bacteria from growing and making matters worse. Cloves have eugenol, which is an anesthetic and also kills germs. Onions-"

"Okay, I get it…they're great for teeth, not for breath," Buffy interrupted. "Thank goodness Dawn didn't swipe the Tic-Tacs, too."

With MacGyver's help identifying the plants, he and Buffy gathered some garlic and cloves. She watched with bemusement as he used his Swiss army knife to prepare the clove paste while she chewed on some garlic. Ugh! If it weren't for the fact it was helping a little, she'd spit it out and eat every single mint she had in her possession. She wondered if it was that fake medicine effect she saw on a show once…placebo or something?

When the pain went down more with the clove paste, Buffy decided she didn't care if it was real or imagined. This guy was a god for helping her. Now she just had to find out if he was evil or not.

Since neither of them felt real comfortable trusting the other to stay on watch at first, they sat there, eating food from Buffy's emergency kit and getting to know each other.

She wasn't sure if he was lying about his life back in the States, but her instincts said for her to let her guard down…a little. It surprised MacGyver a little when she lay down to take a power nap for half an hour. Given that she allowed him to watch over her, he gave her the same courtesy. It wasn't the most restful way to go through the night, but they managed to recuperate somewhat.

As they walked out of the jungle – in the opposite direction that MacGyver came from – they talked even more and found a rhythm to working together when necessary. When his arm hurt, she provided relief using acupressure and she allowed him to help her 'sore' mouth with the cloves and garlic…despite the fact her Slayer healing already took care of it.

"I'm glad I ran into you," Mac said when they finally reached a town where Buffy's friends _mysteriously_ happened to be waiting for her.

Buffy looked down, feeling as shy as a schoolgirl. She was one of the head Slayers, dammit! She should be past being like this around a cute boy! Yet when he shot her a smirky grin, she couldn't help but go a little gooey inside. Knowing she'd catch a lot of crap for this when the others found out, she still bit her lower lip in a coy fashion and flirted, "Yeah…if I had to be stranded with somebody in the jungle, I'm glad it was you. Thanks for the clove and garlic trick, even it made my breath monstrous."

Mac was a fairly bright man; he could tell when he was getting a signal from a woman and this one was practically using neon. He reached over with his good arm to pull her in and confessed just before he kissed her, "I happen to like the taste of garlic and cloves."

Maybe not together, but it had been long enough since she had either in her mouth that the taste was gone. Plus, apparently after she took her shower, she also brushed her teeth…maybe in anticipation of the kiss? Probably just to feel clean again.

He didn't care why; he just enjoyed kissing the beautiful woman that he knew less than a week. "Call me if you're ever in LA," Mac told her when they let go of each other.

It made him chuckle when he heard the brunette exclaim as Buffy and her friends were walking away, "Damn, B! How do you always manage to find the hotties? He wasn't evil, was he?"

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A/N: This time the holiday wasn't mentioned in the story explicitly.

I have no clue who Dawn's hubby is; if there's a crossover character that you think fits the description, then great.

The remedies Mac suggested are from www. home-remedies-for-you . com.


End file.
